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Romana
Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey, she is a companion to the Fourth Doctor. As a Time Lady, Romana is able to regenerate, having had two on-screen incarnations with somewhat different personalities (dubbed Romana I and Romana II by fans). Romana I was played by Mary Tamm from 1978 to 1979. When Tamm chose not to sign on for a second season, the part was recast. Romana II was played by Lalla Ward from 1979 to 1981 regularly and then again in 1983 and 1993 as a guest. Romana is one of only two members of the Doctor's own race to travel with him in the original television series. The other is Susan Foreman, the Doctor's granddaughter, although Susan is never explicitly identified as a Time Lady. Romana I as Romana I]]The White Guardian originally assigns Romana to assist the Doctor during the quest for the Key to Time, a series of linked serials which constitute the whole of Season 16 (1978–79). Romana first appears in The Ribos Operation, and was intended as a contrast to her predecessor, the savage Leela. Romana is initially haughty and somewhat arrogant, looking down on the Doctor (whom she considers to be her academic inferior) and responding to his initial resentment at her presence with icy put-downs. However, she soon gains an appreciation for the Doctor's experience and sense of adventure, and begins to respect him as a teacher. Over the course of Season 16, Romana begins to take on some of the characteristics of the screaming "damsel in distress", which reinforced Tamm's decision not to remain in the role as she felt the character had been taken as far as she could go."There's Something About Mary", a featurette in The Key to Time: Special Edition DVD box set (BBC Video/2 Entertain, 2007 - UK; 2009 - US). As a result, Romana regenerates at the start of Season 17, emerging with a different physical appearance and a lighter personality. Although Tamm had left the show on relatively good terms and was willing to film a regeneration sequence for the start of Season 17, she was not invited to do so.MaryTamm Official Website - Photo Gallery"There's Something About Mary" DVD featuretteA Brief History Of Time (Travel): Destiny Of The Daleks She has stated that the often-repeated explanation that she left due to pregnancy is a myth that was started by producer John Nathan-Turner as she was not pregnant when she decided to leave the series.MaryTamm Official Website - Mary Tamm in Dr WhoMary Tamm ('Doctor Who') - Doctor Who Interview - Cult - Digital Spy However, her pregnancy has been stated as the reason she was not able to film a regeneration sequence. Romana II The introduction of Romana's second incarnation in Destiny of the Daleks, a script credited to Terry Nation, but with several additions and alterations by script editor Douglas Adams, treats the concept of regeneration humorously. At the beginning of the serial, Romana changes bodily forms several times, rather like someone casually trying on different outfits, before deciding to take the form of Princess Astra, who had been played by Lalla Ward in the final serial of Season 16, The Armageddon Factor. This regeneration scene is controversial with some fans, as it does not conform with how regeneration is treated with regards to the Doctor or other Time Lord characters. Attempts at rationalizing Romana's regeneration have been made in licensed spin-off media, including the Short Trips short story "The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe" which speculates that the TARDIS was responsible for her regeneration. The canonicity of spin-off media in the Doctor Who franchise is unclear. Romana II enjoys a more intimate relationship with the Doctor than her predecessor, to the point that some fans have assumed a romantic relationship with the Doctor. Although a relationship was never explicitly shown or intended by the writers, many fans have found the signs of a romantic relationship particularly evident in the story City of Death, perhaps reflecting the real-life romance between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward which blossomed during the production of that story, leading to their brief marriage. In many ways, she is the companion most like her Doctor - besides being of the same race and comparable intelligence, she occasionally mimics his sense of style, wields her own sonic screwdriver and can occasionally get the better of him in moments of banter and more practical situations. As her practical experience develops, she also becomes more assured and capable in the situations she encounters. At the end of the serial Meglos, Romana receives word from the Time Lords recalling her to Gallifrey. The opening of the next serial Full Circle makes it clear that, having travelled with the Doctor, she no longer desires to return home. Before the issue can be resolved, the TARDIS falls through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment. Her final television appearance was in Warriors' Gate, where, along with the robot dog K-9, she leaves to forge her own path in the parallel universe of E-space when faced with a choice of remaining there or returning to Gallifrey. She also appears briefly in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors through the reuse of footage from the uncompleted story Shada. After the departure of both Romana I and II, both versions of the character also appeared very briefly in flashback sequences during the Fourth Doctor's regeneration in Logopolis as well as the Fifth Doctor's mind-copy in Resurrection of the Daleks. Romana would also be mentioned in Castrovalva during the Fifth Doctor's post-regenerative confusion, as well as in Arc of Infinity, in which the Fifth Doctor, in response to a reprimand from the High Council of Time Lords for "leaving her behind", retorts that she "chose to remain in E-Space". Ward subsequently returned for a brief cameo as Romana in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time. In "The End of the World" (2005), the Ninth Doctor stated that his homeworld had been destroyed and that he was the last of the Time Lords. Whether Romana was killed with the others has not been specifically established on screen. Of note, while various spin-off material (see below) reveals that Romana later became President of Gallifrey after returning from E-Space, this is clearly not the case at the end of the Time War; in The End of Time (2009–10), the Time Lord founder, Rassilon (Timothy Dalton), is shown alive again and claiming the title, though it is possible he did so after Romana's term. Appearances in other media Outside of the television programme, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II also appear in Australian-filmed television advertisements for PR1ME Computer, Inc. in 1980, which played in a tongue-in-cheek way with the idea that the two characters shared a romantic relationship, climaxing with the Doctor proposing marriage (which occurred in real life between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward after her departure from the series that same year). An article by Russell T Davies in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 states that Romana was President of the Time Lords during the Last Great Time War against the Daleks (see below), which ended with Gallifrey being destroyed. As with all spin-off media, its canonicity in relation to the television series is open to interpretation. Novels In the licensed Virgin New Adventures novel Blood Harvest by Terrance Dicks, Romana II leaves E-Space and returns to Gallifrey with the help of the Seventh Doctor. In Goth Opera by Paul Cornell, from the complementary Missing Adventures series, she is given a seat on the High Council of Time Lords. In New Adventures' Happy Endings, also by Cornell, it is revealed that Romana has become Lady President of Gallifrey. Romana's presidency is reflected in the later novels and in her appearances (voiced by Ward) in audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. She also makes a cameo appearance in Human Nature in a vision. Romana appears in the unlicensed fan fiction novel Time's Champion, in the role of President of the Time Lords. Romana's appearance in the 1997 novel The Eight Doctors- where she helps the newly-regenerated Eighth Doctor rescue his fourth incarnation from a group of vampires in the aftermath of State of Decay- was highlighted in a trailer for the re-launched Doctor Who range which was included on a number of BBC videos in 1997-8. The trailer used a clip from Destiny of the Daleks to illustrate Romana. ]] In the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, Romana undergoes a second regeneration, and her new incarnation (Romana III, whose appearance was modelled on silent movie actress Louise Brooks) is far less sympathetic and far more ruthless than the other two. This third incarnation pursues the Eighth Doctor in a story arc relating to the Future War - a War between the Time Lords and an as-yet-unidentified enemy, seeking to use his new companion Compassion - who has been unintentionally mutated into a Type 102 TARDIS in the aftermath of the destruction of the Doctor's own ship- as breeding stock for the new sentient TARDISes in the Future War. With the Doctor refusing to allow the Time Lords to make Compassion a slave, he, Compassion and fellow companion Fitz Kreiner go on the run between The Shadows of Avalon and The Ancestor Cell, the final confrontation on board the Doctor's believed-destroyed original TARDIS resulting in the obliteration of Gallifrey and the apparent retroactive wiping out of the Time Lords from history. A flashback in the final Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Gallifrey Chronicles suggests that Romana is killed by Faction Paradox skulltroopers just before Gallifrey's destruction. However, it is hinted in Tomb of Valdemar by Simon Messingham that Romana may be one of a few Time Lords who survived this cataclysm, possibly in a fourth incarnation and The Gallifrey Chronicles itself suggests that the Doctor will eventually restore Gallifrey and all the dead Time Lords whose minds are stored in the Matrix, in time for its destruction again in the Time War. Audio plays Romana II appeared pseudonymously in a series of audio plays produced in the early 2000s by BBV. In this series, Lalla Ward played a character who appeared with K-9 in an unnamed parallel universe. This character is called the Mistress (which was what K-9 called Romana in the television series). Because of an unusual copyright situation in which BBV was able to license K-9 but not Romana or other Doctor Who elements, the Mistress is not explicitly called Romana. For similar reasons, the parallel universe (obviously intended to reflect Romana's exile in E-Space) is called a "pocket universe" in the series' packaging. In Big Finish's regular line of Doctor Who audio stories, Ward joined Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor in The Apocalypse Element, in which Romana is Lady President of Gallifrey. In the story, it is revealed that Romana II was abducted by the Daleks soon after assuming the presidential office, and remained in captivity for twenty years before making her escape, briefly reuniting with the Doctor before reassuming her post. Romana II also appears with Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in the 2003 remake of Shada, an audio play produced by Big Finish for the BBC's Doctor Who website and accompanied by Macromedia Flash animations, and also in Neverland and Zagreus. More recently, she has appeared with the Fifth Doctor in The Chaos Pool, the final part of the Key 2 Time trilogy, where it is revealed that Romana's regeneration was at least partly caused by her transformation into the new sixth segment of the Key to Time, the audio concluding with the segment's essence being transferred back to Astra to save Romana's life before the Doctor destroys the Key for good. In Zagreus, Romana II is forced to banish the Eighth Doctor from the universe as he has become a danger to it following his infection by the forces of "anti-time". Following on from this, she is featured in a number of audio plays with former Doctor companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson) under the umbrella title of Gallifrey. In the audio series, Romana has to contend with the emergence of a terrorist group known as Free Time, which wants to break the technological monopoly on time travel and threatens not just Gallifrey, but its time travel-capable allies. Romana's progressive policies, including opening the Academy to non-Gallifreyans, also face opposition from more conservative elements. Complicating this is the escape of an ancient evil called Pandora from the Matrix in the paradoxical form of Romana's first incarnation (played once again by Mary Tamm). Both Romana and the Pandora entity proclaim themselves Imperiatrix of Gallifrey, provoking a civil war. At the war's end, Romana destroys Pandora by trapping her in the Matrix and destroying it. She is also removed from the Presidency. With Gallifrey on the brink of economic and social collapse, as well as in danger of being overrun by a Free Time virus, Romana and her friends flee through several alternate universes. Romana encounters many versions of Gallifrey worse than her own, before finally becoming trapped in one. This Gallifrey is similar, but without the ability to time travel. After their President Romana is assassinated, she assumes her identity, regaining her office, albeit in a different universe. Big Finish's spin-off line The Companion Chronicles has featured new performances by both Ward and Tamm in a number of stories set within their respective continuities. Tamm reprised the role of Romana for the final time alongside Tom Baker for a second series of original audio dramas (the first series having featured Leela) set after the Key to Time era. Recorded several months before Tamm's death in 2012, the first of these, The Auntie Matter, was released in January 2013, with a total of seven plays being released up until July 2013. List of appearances Television ;Season 16 (Romana l) *''The Ribos Operation'' *''The Pirate Planet'' *''The Stones of Blood'' *''The Androids of Tara'' *''The Power of Kroll'' *''The Armageddon Factor'' ;Season 17 (Romana ll) *''Destiny of the Daleks'' *''City of Death'' *''The Creature from the Pit'' *''Nightmare of Eden'' *''The Horns of Nimon'' *''Shada'' (not completed or transmitted) ;Season 18 (Romana ll) *''The Leisure Hive'' *''Meglos'' *''Full Circle'' *''State of Decay'' *''Warriors' Gate'' ;20th anniversary special *''The Five Doctors'' (footage from Shada) (Romana ll) ;30th anniversary special *''Dimensions in Time'' (Romana ll) Audio dramas ;BBV *''K-9: The Choice'' (pseudonymous appearance) *''K-9: The Search'' (pseudonymous appearance) ;Big Finish Productions ;1st Romana *''Gallifrey: Lies'' *''Gallifrey: Pandora'' *''Gallifrey: Insurgency'' *''Gallifrey: Imperiatrix'' *''Gallifrey: Reborn'' *''Stealers from Saiph'' *''Ferril's Folly'' *''Gallifrey: Reborn'' *''Tales from the Vault'' *''The Auntie Matter'' *''The Sands of Life'' (scheduled February 2013) *''War Against The Laan'' (scheduled March 2013) *''The Justice of Jalxar'' (scheduled April 2013) *''Phantoms of the Deep'' (scheduled May 2013) * The Dalek Contract (scheduled June 2013) * The Final Phase (scheduled July 2013) ;2nd Romana *''The Apocalypse Element'' *''Neverland'' *''Zagreus'' *''Shada'' (webcast on BBCi, later released on CD) *''Gallifrey: Weapon of Choice'' *''Gallifrey: Square One'' *''Gallifrey: The Inquiry'' *''Gallifrey: A Blind Eye'' *''Gallifrey: Lies'' *''Gallifrey: Spirit'' *''Gallifrey: Pandora'' *''Gallifrey: Insurgency'' *''Gallifrey: Imperiatrix'' *''Gallifrey: Fractures'' *''Gallifrey: Warfare'' *''Gallifrey: Appropriation'' *''Gallifrey: Mindbomb'' *''Gallifrey: Panacea'' *''The Beautiful People'' *''The Chaos Pool'' *''The Pyralis Effect'' *''The Invasion of E-Space'' *''Gallifrey: Reborn'' *''Gallifrey: Disassembled'' *''Gallifrey: Annihilation'' *''Gallifrey: Forever'' *''Luna Romana'' (scheduled January 2014) Short Trips audios *''Seven to One'' *''The Old Rogue'' Novels ;Virgin Missing Adventures *''Goth Opera'' by Paul Cornell (Romana 2) *''The Romance of Crime'' by Gareth Roberts (Romana 2) *''The English Way of Death'' by Gareth Roberts (Romana 2) *''The Shadow of Weng-Chiang'' by David A. McIntee (Romana 1) *''The Well-Mannered War'' by Gareth Roberts (Romana 2) ;Virgin New Adventures *''Blood Harvest'' by Terrance Dicks (Romana 2) *''Happy Endings'' by Paul Cornell (Romana 2) *''Lungbarrow'' by Marc Platt (Romana 2) ;Eighth Doctor Adventures *''The Eight Doctors'' by Terrance Dicks (Romana 2) *''The Shadows of Avalon'' by Paul Cornell (Romana 3) *''The Ancestor Cell'' by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole (Romana 3) ;Past Doctor Adventures *''Tomb of Valdemar'' by Simon Messingham (Romana 1) *''Heart of TARDIS'' by Dave Stone (Romana 1) *''Festival of Death'' by Jonathan Morris (Romana 2) Short stories *"Glass" by Tara Samms (Short Trips) *"Return of the Spiders" by Gareth Roberts (More Short Trips) *"Special Occasions 1: The Not So Sinister Sponge" by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman (Short Trips and Sidesteps) *"Special Occasions 2: Do You Love Anyone Enough?" by Norman Ashby (Short Trips and Sidesteps) *"Special Occasions 3: Better Watch Out: Better Take Care" by Steve Burford (Short Trips and Sidesteps) *"Special Occasions 4: Playing with Toys" by David Agnew (Short Trips and Sidesteps) *"I Was A Monster!!!" by Joseph Lidster (Short Trips: Zodiac) *"The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe" by Mark Michalowski (Short Trips: Companions) *"Doing Time" by Lance Parkin (Short Trips: Steel Skies) *"O, Darkness" by John Binns (Short Trips: Steel Skies) *"The Time Lord's Story" by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett (Short Trips: Repercussions) *"The Little Things" by Paul Beardsley (Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury) *"The Clanging Chimes of Doom" by Jonathan Morris (Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury) *"Present Tense" by Ian Potter (Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury) *"Suitors, Inc." by Paul Magrs (Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins) *"Life from Lifelessness" by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Short Trips: Destination Prague) *"The Glarn Strategy" by Brian Dooley (Short Trips: Snapshots) *"All Snug in Their Beds" by Scott Alan Woodard (Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas) *"Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen" by Terri Osborne (Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership) *"Breadcrumbs" by James Moran (Short Trips: Transmissions) Comics *"Terror on Xaboi" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1980) - 1st incarnation *"The Weapon" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1980) - 1st incarnation *"Every Dog Has His Day" by Mel Powell (Doctor Who Annual 1981) - 2nd incarnation *"Victims" by Dan Abnett, Colin Andrew and Enid Orc (Doctor Who Magazine 212–214) - 2nd incarnation *"The Seventh Segment" by Gareth Roberts, Paul Peart and Elitta Fell (Doctor Who Magazine Summer Special 1995) - 1st incarnation References External links * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/companions/page22.shtml Romana I on the BBC's Doctor Who website] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/companions/page23.shtml Romana II on the BBC's Doctor Who website] Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1978 Category:Time Lords Category:Doctor Who companions Category:Doctor Who audio characters Category:Fictional psychologists Category:Fictional politicians simple:Romana (Doctor Who)